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Health plays an essential role for human and economic development. This thesis consists of four independent empirical papers on health and health care in developing countries. The first paper investigates the relationship between globalization, democracy, and child health in low- and middle-income countries. Using panel data for 70 developing countries between 1970 and 2009 we examine how globaliz

Monitoring long-term biomass dynamics in drylands is of great importance for many environmental applications including land degradation and global carbon cycle modeling. Biomass has extensively been estimated based on the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) as a measure of the vegetation greenness. The vegetation optical depth (VOD) derived from satellite passive microwave observations i

A search is presented for anomalous quartic gauge boson couplings in vector-boson scattering. The data for the analysis correspond to 20.2 fb-1 of s=8 TeV pp collisions and were collected in 1972 by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. The search looks for the production of WW or WZ boson pairs accompanied by a high-mass dijet system, with one W decaying leptonically and a W or Z dec

Unaccompanied refugee minors represent a potentially vulnerable group regarding sexual and reproductive health and rights, particularly due to the circumstances surrounding their migration. Research is scarce about the sexual and reproductive health and rights needs of unaccompanied minors, many of whom come from countries with limited access to information about sexual and reproductive health and

The evaluation of modelling diagnostics with appropriate observations is an important task that establishes the capabilities and reliability of models. In this study we compare aerosol and cloud properties obtained from three different climate models (ECHAM-HAM, ECHAM-HAMSALSA, and NorESM) with satellite observations using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data. The simulator M

Background: Microseminoprotein-beta (MSP), a protein secreted by the prostate epithelium, may have a protective role in the development of prostate cancer. The only previous prospective study found a 2% reduced prostate cancer risk per unit increase in MSP. This work investigates the association of MSP with prostate cancer risk using observational and Mendelian randomization (MR) methods. Patients

Background: Mucociliary clearance (MCC) rate from the lung has been shown to be reduced in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This study compared the use of change in penetration index (PI) with conventional whole lung clearance in assessing MCC in mild-to-moderate disease. Methods: Measurement of lung MCC using planar gamma camera imaging was performed in three groups: (1) healthy nons

Searches for scalar leptoquarks pair-produced in proton–proton collisions at s=13 TeV at the Large Hadron Collider are performed by the ATLAS experiment. A data set corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb- 1 is used. Final states containing two electrons or two muons and two or more jets are studied, as are states with one electron or muon, missing transverse momentum and two or more

Spatial data are playing an increasingly important role in watershed science and management. Large investments have been made by government agencies to provide nationally-available spatial databases; however, their relevance and suitability for local watershed applications is largely unscrutinized. We investigated how goodness of fit and predictive accuracy of total phosphorus (TP) concentration m

Background Abdominal symptoms are diagnostically challenging to general practitioners (GPs): although common, they may indicate cancer. In a prospective cohort of patients, we examined abdominal symptom frequency, initial diagnostic suspicion, and actions of GPs in response to abdominal symptoms. Methods Over a 10-day period, 493 GPs in Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Scotla

Succinate:quinone reductases (SQRs) and quinol:fumarate reductases (QFRs) each contain a bi-, a tri- and a tetra-nuclear iron-sulfur cluster. The C-terminal half of the iron-sulfur protein subunit of these enzymes shows two fully conserved motifs of cysteine residues, stereotypical for ligands of [3Fe-4S] and [4Fe-4S] clusters. To analyze the functional role of the trinuclear cluster S3 in Bacillu

Background. During early mouse development, two extra-embryonic lineages form alongside the future embryo: the trophectoderm (TE) and the primitive endoderm (PrE). Epigenetic changes known to take place during these early stages include changes in DNA methylation and modified histones, as well as dynamic changes in gene expression. Results. In order to understand the role and extent of chromatin-b

In spite of the success of traditional sampled-data theory in computer control it has some disadvantages particularly for distributed, asynchronous, and multi-rate system. Event based sampling is an alternative which is explored in this paper. A simple example illustrates the differences between periodic and event based sampling. The architecture of a general structure for event based control is p

Aims and objectives: The aim of this study was to explore the associations between patients' gender, education, health status in relation to assessments of patient-centred quality and individuality in care and trust in nurses for those <65 (working age) and ≥65 years (older people). Background: Patients' assessments of the quality of care they receive are essential for the development of the provi

The vitamin D receptor (VDR) has been proposed as a candidate gene for several musculoskeletal phenotypes. However, previous results on the associations between genetic variants of the VDR with muscle strength and falls have been contradictory. The MrOS Sweden survey, a prospective population-based cohort study of 3014 elderly men (mean age 75 years, range 69–81) offered the opportunity to further

In 65 young women undergoing curettage for benign utrine disorders a signicicant relationship was found between early oral contraceptive use (starting age<25 years) and a high ratio of ln plasma prolactin versus ln estrogen receptor concentration of the uterine mucosae (p<0.047, Mann-Whitneys U-test). Year of birth, age at menarche, age at first full term pregnancy, parity, menstrual cycle phase a

A search for pair production of the supersymmetric partners of the Higgs boson (higgsinos H) in gauge-mediated scenarios is reported. Each higgsino is assumed to decay to a Higgs boson and a gravitino. Two complementary analyses, targeting high- and low-mass signals, are performed to maximize sensitivity. The two analyses utilize LHC pp collision data at a center-of-mass energy s=13 TeV, the forme